Mexico's housing development where poor people won't live

12 February 2013

More than 78% of people in Chiapas, a state in southern Mexico, are considered poor and more than 30% live in extreme poverty. Yet even though the state provided new houses, they are abandoned. People do not want to live in the dilapidated homes with cracks in the wall, which cannot withstand the wind and rain. La Casa No Dignita (A House Without Dignity) shows how policies to improve the lives of the poorest people can fail if locals are not fully involved in the decision-making process.

The film was produced earlier this year by the IDS-coordinated Participate Inititative. Together with research partners working in Chiapas, from the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Xoximilco, the Participate team worked with indigenous people in their villages to document on film, their views on how the Millennium Development Goals have affected their lives.

La Casa No Dignita was screened as part of the official Post-2015 High Level Panel Agenda in Liberia last month. During the interactive workshop session, run by Participate, members of the Post-2015 High Level Panel and thier advisors, explored early research findings from the
programme to help inform their official discussions and address key questions in the post-2015
debate.